Thursday, March 20, 2014

Nancy Nangeroni, who says she has suffered neck, shoulder, and back pain since a 2004 auto accident brought her medical records with her in a visit to Dr. Joey Rottman to get certified for medical marijuana.

The waiting room of Integr8, a new type of medical practice that opened in a Burlington office building last October, was crowded with patients. One leaned on a walker, another gripped a plastic grocery bag filled with pill bottles. There were twentysomethings and senior citizens. Many were drawn there by the same thing: medical marijuana.

In the AMA, Gupta tried to dispel some medical myths about pot and pointed out that it’s safer than many narcotic pain pills that doctors prescribe.Gupta has waged a campaign to change perceptions about pot and argue for its medical legalization since he changed his opinion on the issue in August.Here are a few highlights:What are your thoughts towards using high percentage CBD strains to help people with Anxiety? Do you think that using CBD in combination with therapy could be effective and less dangerous than other drugs such as Prozac or Xanax?I think so. We have a better understanding of how CBD works in the brain, and the receptors where it binds. There are many prescription drugs that have a much higher risk than cannabis, but are prescribed often. Narcotics, in particular. We consume 80% of the world’s pain meds in the United States.What is the best method of marijuana ingestion?It is probably vaporizing. I think smoking creates a lot of byproducts that we don’t know enough about. I think eating it leads to very uneven absorption. Vaporizing seems to activate the medicine without burning it. I also think oils absorbed in the mouth are effective, especially for kids.

Robert Davidson’s multiple sclerosis left him unable to walk for 15 years. He had prescriptions for 13 different drugs – including high doses of morphine that left him feeling like a zombie.

Since 2000, however, when he started using cannabis as a medicine, his health has markedly improved. He is now “clean” from all those pharmaceuticals. He can walk again. He has rekindled a relationship with his children. Twenty years after his initial diagnosis, he can even skateboard and snowboard.

“I am able to take care of myself. You don’t know how empowering that is,” said the 50-year-old from Langley Township, B.C.

“It had been 15 years not going up the mountain, and now I can rip big air again.”

He believes marijuana helped put his MS in remission, a phenomenon observed in enough patients to attract the attention of researchers. Several studies have been conducted on the effects of marijuana for patients with MS, some suggesting it could be effective in protecting the nervous system against the disease’s advance.

If there was any doubt that the “green rush” is on in Colorado, the scene outside a marijuana industry career fair in Denver on Thursday looked like a throwback to the Great Recession.

Thousands of people waited for hours with resumes in hand in a line that stretched several blocks. The O.penVAPE Cannabis Job Fair featured 15 different businesses associated with recreational marijuana sales, and it had turn people away by the day’s end.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Shawnee Anderson's voice is shrill, quavering -- on the edge of desperate. She clutches her 11-month-old son, Sage, while trying to comprehend the situation unfolding in front of her.Her boyfriend -- Sage's father, Aaron Hillyer -- is in handcuffs."Why are you doing this?" she pleads with police officers standing on the lawn outside her home."Your baby doesn't need to be subjected to marijuana," an officer replies, in an audio recording made by Anderson on her cell phone.But she could explain: Anderson and Hillyer have legal prescriptions for the marijuana in their home. His is prescribed for anxiety and chronic pain; hers for depression and anxiety."I told them we had our cards, our prescriptions," said Anderson, 27. "They didn't want to see them."Not long after that exchange, according to police video of the family's encounter, a social worker arrived at the home and decided to place Sage in foster care."I was pleading with them, 'Look, you guys, I understand your perception, but we are wonderful parents, hardworking members of our community,'" said Hillyer, 34."They could not conceive of the fact that you can be a wonderful parent, a decent human being, and medicate with marijuana."

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic degenerative disease of the central nervous system that causes inflammation, muscular weakness and a loss of motor coordination. Over time, MS patients typically become permanently disabled and, in some cases, the disease can be fatal. According to the US National Multiple Sclerosis Society, about 200 people are diagnosed every week with the disease -- often striking those 20 to 40 years of age.